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Before organizing your presentation keep reminding yourself that Less
is More. Also consider that most presentations have far too many
concepts, and the concepts far too many details..
You should be able to put the gist of your presentation into one
sentence or “headline”. What
would the headline of your speech be? Think about it. Start
by writing a few full sentences to describe your overall theme.
Edit out the superfluous adjectives, and then see if you
can combine the sentences all into one.
Then make that sentence a phrase. If you can’t put all
that into one headline you may have to simplify your idea.
Most presentations end up having too much content, although ironically
presenters always fear not having enough to say.
It’s also probable that you’re audience has never heard your idea
before. Though old
news to you, its very likely something new to your audience. If
you’re on a traveling road show giving the speech over and
over again, no matter where you go on the whistle-stop tour,
it’s always their first time. Don’t
forget that.
The Kitchen Sink
Most presenters end up using the “kitchen sink” approach and tell
their audiences all they can, about everything they can, in the
short amount of time allocated to them. Therefore it becomes a
race to spew out as much information as possible as quickly as
possible, essentially a self-serving data dump.
How disheartening for the audience.
Your presentation is about your audience, not about your finishing
everything you want to say as quickly as possible. And
its certainly not about your demonstrating the breadth and depth
of your knowledge, even if the CEO is in the back of the room.
Although we’d like to believe it, nobody can recall
everything that you say anyway.
So choose to make your headline important, relevant to your audience,
and to the point. Once
they have the headline, they have a context into which to put
your supporting evidence. But
if they’re still trying to figure out what your main point is
while you’re trying to offer them proof, the impact of your
evidence will be highly diluted.
And speaking of points: Keep it to three.
Humans have an amazing ability to remember things that
come in three, and forget things more complicated.
The rule of three is a principle in writing that suggests
that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more
satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things.
No matter what your topic, either break your supporting data apart or
put them together to form three main components.
Repeating those three components often will lead to not
only greater comprehension, but much greater retention, too.
So argument that is broken down into three concepts, each supported by
three solid sources of evidence, becomes an argument that your
audience will find very easy to buy into, even it they don’t
see the simplicity of the symmetry.
Remember FDR’s advice: “Be sincere, be brief, be seated.”
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